 As part of National Chiropractic Health Month, we take a look at one the biggest issues affecting patient's ability to heal from injuries - delaying treatment.
The National Institute of Health notes pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. Why do so many Americans experience chronic pain? It's common to wait after an injury to see if it will go away on its own, but waiting too long only makes it harder to bounce back. Research confirms that waiting more than 7 days to treat an injury increases your risk of chronic problems. But why? It's all about how the body heals from an injury: Initially, inflammation increases at the site of an injury. This means swelling, redness, warmth, and PAIN. Inflammation increases over 1-3 days, which explains why pain may not be immediate but can build after a day or two. Frequently, the pain and inflammation will start to reduced after a few days - this is where you can get in trouble... Within a week of injury, the body starts repairing soft tissues with fibriotic scar tissue. Picture normal muscles and soft tissues as nicely organized fibers lined up next to each other. Now picture scar tissue as a tangled nest of fibers trying to patch up a hole. Pain may be fairly well controlled at this point, but as scar tissue builds, increased stiffness and joint restrictions can develop. If scar tissue develops enough to restrict a full range of motion in a joint, it's only a matter of time before pain and inflammation return -- because the joint can't function correctly. Moral: Don't delay treatment more than one week or the risk of chronic problems increases Chiropractic treatment is key to not only reducing pain and inflammation, but also improving scar tissue function so your joints are moving correctly again. The key is healthy movement. Chiropractic adjustments help the scar tissue align and reorganize to be more similar to your body's normal healthy soft tissues. This reorganization process can take months, but chiropractic care tends to accelerate this natural response. Don't rely on pain as your only indicator of health. If you pay attention to how well your body is moving and functioning, you may be able to avoid the pain in the first place.
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 As part of National Chiropractic Health Month, we take a look at recent news and research that has highlighted the growing epidemic of prescription drug problems:
CNN's story, "Let’s End the Prescription Drug Death Epidemic," reported on the increasing injury and death from prescription medication as Americans consume 80% of the world's pain medication for less than 5% of the world's population. Harvard research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association highlighted increasing medical mismanagement of back pain as doctors continue to increase narcotic pain prescriptions and ignore medical guidelines that recommend safer, more effective options like chiropractic treatment. A national report on prescription drug abuse ranked Ohio as 12th Highest Drug Overdose Mortality Rate in the US, with most deaths coming from prescription medications. "Fifty Americans die a day from prescription drug overdoses, and more than 6 million suffer from prescription drug abuse disorders. This is a very real epidemic - and warrants a strong public health response," said Andrea Gielen, ScD, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. What's Going On?  October is National Chiropractic Health Month. Discover how to improve your health with chiropractic care. Joints are critical to all movement and allow us to carry out normal activities of daily living. Some 150 million to 200 million cases of back pain send people to the doctor every year—and many of those are related to joint injuries. The bones that make up the joint allow movement, but it is the muscles that pull the bones that produce the movement. Use it or Lose it The movements that you perform on a daily basis are critical to long-term joint health, as are proper nutrition, a healthy exercise regimen, and a healthy lifestyle. Moving a joint through its full range of motion serves several important purposes. Joints are not supplied directly with blood as are other organs within the body, but instead are nourished with synovial fluid that is forced into the joint cartilage through pressure resulting from body movement. So the saying, “Use it or lose it” applies to joint function.
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Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your treating doctor. This blog is not a doctor and will not diagnose or treat your problems.
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